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RECORDING SPEED AND PRESSURE AIR OB. GAS GAGE.

No. 369,932. Patented Sept. 13, 1887.

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Patented Sept. 13, 1887.

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' UNITED STATES PATENT O FICE.

JOHN GORDON, JR, AND EDWARD J. B. LOWDON, OF DUNDEE, SCOTLAND.

RECORDING SPEED AND PRESSURE AIR OR GAS GAGE.

FJPECIPICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 369,932, dated September 13, 1887. Application filed November 2, 1886. Serial No. 217,819. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN GORDON, J r., and EDWARD J osnrrr BowDEN LOWDON, both subjects of Her Britannia Majesty, and rest dents of Dundee, Scotland, have invented an Improved Recording Air or Gas Gage, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices for record ing and indicating the speed or velocity and the pressure of air or gas; and it consists in certain novel combinations of parts, hereinafter described. The whole is embodied in a simple apparatus whereby the force and duration of any blast or pressure of air or other gas, the length of interval between such blasts or variations of pressure, and the exact time at which such blasts or variations of pressure take place may be indicated and automatically recorded, rendering the apparatus valuable to seamen as a recorder and indicator of the progress and increase or abatement of a gale, and of great value as an automatic indicator and recorder of the pressure in gas-mains, the force of air-currents in mines, shafts, boilerflucs, 810., and for similar purposes.

In order that our invention may be the better understood,we now proceed to describe the same, reference being bad to the drawings hereto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon.

Like letters refer to like parts in the different figures.

Figure 1 shows an outside elevation of our apparatus, the indicating-dial and recording device being operated from a single collapsible bellows. Fig. 2 represents a modification in which separate but similar collapsible bellows are used to operate the indicating-dial and recording device, respectively. Fig. 3 is a plan of the latter. Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional elevation of the recording-bellows and attachments.

A is the collapsible air-chamberor bellows, formed of top and bottom rigid plates B B, Fig. 4, of any suitable material, and flexible or collapsible sides 0, of a suitable air or gas tight material, such as leather or cloth. An inlet-pipe, D, provides the access for the airblast or gaseous pressure, or for the withdrawal of the same as a vacuum to or from the interior of the said air-chamber or bellows A. A steel spring, E, or its equivalent is fixed at one end to any fixed part of the frame, and at the other end is connected with the top plate of the bellows A by an articulated stem L or connection, F. The latter is central to the bellows and primarily serves to connect said top plate with a. horizontal pivotal shaft, G. A cylindrical casing, H, Fig. 4-, through the top of which said connection Fextends,loosely incloses the bellows by preference, so as to protect it against external influences. Said spring E holds one of the plates B of the bel lows in normal equilibrium when the air or gas within the air-chamber or bellows is in atmospheric equilibrium, the other plate B of the bellows being a fixture to the frame.

It is obvious that the top plate might be equivalently weighted by avariable weight in place of the spring E. The top plate of the air-chamber or bellows A will thus rise or fall by a slight pressure or decrease of pressure within said bellows A. This movement may be transmitted direct to the pointer or finger I of the indicating-dial J by a cord or chain, K, and a pulley, L, on the axis of the indicating dial-finger, a coiled spring, M, on the said axis tending to turn the finger in the opposite direction. The finger is shown at zero in Figs. 1 and 2. By using known mechanical substitutes the movement may be transmitted by an equivalent rack attached to the top plate of the air-chamber and a pinion upon the axis of the indicating-finger, or the movement of the top plate may be first transmitted to a multiplying-lever, as N, pivoted on a fulcrum at any fixed part of the frame, and the cord K or equivalent rack may be attached to any part of the said lever to effect a multiplication of the travel of the top plate of the bellows A. In the arrangement represented by Figs. 2 and 3 a separate but similar bellows, A, Fig. 3, with air-tube D and spring E, the latter applied directly to the bellows, is used behind the indicating-dial J to communicate its movement by the cord K and pulley L to the pulley L of the indicating-finger I, a similar collapsible bellows, A, being used with lever attachment N,by which the movements of the top plate of the bellows are automatically recorded. In Fig. 1 the same collapsible bellows A. is caused to effect both the indication and the automatic record of its movements simultaneously.

The automatic record is effected as follows: A cylindrical drum,0,is covered with a chart indicating time by horizontal spaces and pressure by vertical spaces, the chart being a band wound upon the main drum by its rotation and taken from a reel spindle or cylinder, P. The said drum is caused to rotate uniformly by clock-work X, so that equalangular move ments are rotated through in equal times. In connection with a non-rotary shaft, Y, the clock-work X may be conveniently located within a recess in the upper end of the drum 0, as shown; but it may be applied to the drum in any approved way. To the end of the lever N is fixed a pencil or other marker pressing lightly upon the surface ofthe revolving chart. (See Fig. 3.) As the record-chart thus slowly and uniformly revolves, it receives an automatic record of the amount and duration of the movements of the pencil or marker fixed to the lever N, and thus of the top plate of the ainchamber or bellows A. The indicatingdial may be marked with units of pressure or units of velocity corresponding to variations of pressure, or with both.

The indicating part of the device, when used with a separate collapsible spring-pressed airchamher or bellows, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, may be used apart from the recording part of the device, as may often be convenient.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our saidinvention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, in an air or gas gage, of abellows forming aplenum or vacuum receiver, a resistance device, as a spring, opposing the expansion or collapse of said bellows from a normal point of equilibrium, a suitable multiplying-lever carrying a marker at its outer extremity, a uniformly-rotated record-drum, and a parallel reel-spindle supplying paper to said drum, substantially as herein specified, for the purposes set forth.

2. In an improved air or gas gage, the combination of a bellows forming a plenum or vacuum receiverfi a resistance device, as a spring, opposing the expansion or collapse of said bellows from a normal point of equilibrium, a speed or pressure indicator composed of a dial and a pointer, a direct connection,as a cord and pulley, transmitting motion from said bellows to said indicator, and mechanical means, as a spring, for turning the same in the opposite direction, substantially as herein specified, for the purposes set forth.

3. In an improved air or gas gage, an indicator comprising a dial and a spring-turned pointer, and a recording device comprising a uniformly-rotated record-drum anda marker, in combination with a vertical bellows forming a plenum or vacuum receiver, and a resistance device, as a spring, common to said indicator and recording device, a multiplyinglever connected with the top plate of said bellows and carrying said marker, a cord connected with said top plate, and a pulley connected with said pointer, and to which the other end of said cord is attached, substantially as herein specified, for the purposes set forth.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN coupon, JR. EDWARD J. n. LOWDON.

\Vitnesses to the signature of John Gordon, Jr. 2

JOHN G. FELL, RICHARD A. HOFFMAN. \Vitnesses to the signature of Edward Joseph Bowdcn Lowdon:

G-no. Lownow, JOHN BROWN. 

